AUTAUGA COUNTY, Alabama – Biologists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are one day shy of completing a week-long airborne effort to introduce a vaccine that will help stop the spread of rabies in Central Alabama.
The $100,000 project funded by the USDA was prompted by the discovery of seven rabies cases in Autauga and Elmore counties, which, according to experts, is unusually high number of cases in one year.
"Not a single case was reported from 2003 to 2009. Since then, thirteen cases have been reported in central Alabama alone," said USDA Rabies Field Coordinator Jordana Kirby.
So far, the four-person USDA crew has dropped more than 61,000 edible packets containing a liquid vaccination via helicopter over a 400-square-mile area east of the Coosa River since Tuesday.
The ketchup-packet-sized sacks -- coated in fish oil and fish meal to attract local raccoons, coyotes and foxes -- are designed to be ingested by the animals to prevent further transmission of the disease westward of the Coosa River. According to Kirby, rivers serve as a geographic barrier to raccoons, which are usually reluctant to swim because they lack waterproof fur.
Kirby said it will take four weeks for an animal to develop an immunity to rabies once they consume the vaccine.
"We will return mid-November to check the progress by setting up cage traps and taking blood from local raccoons, coyotes and foxes," she said. "They traditionally have about a 30 to 35 percent success rate."
If an animal already has rabies, however, the vaccine will not cure or affect the progress of the disease.
This isn't the first time specialists have conducted a helicopter bait drop to spread rabies vaccinations in the area. They conducted a similar drop in 2005, which Kirby said was considered a success by the USDA.
- Aggressive behavior
- Paralysis in hind legs
- Walking in circles